ESTIMATION OF COMBINING ABILITY OF BABY CORN (Zea mays L.) FOR COB AND FODDER YIELD USING LINE × TESTER DESIGN

Combining ability estimation are important genetic attributes for maize breeders in anticipating improvement in productivity via hybridization and selection. This research was carried out to exploit the genetic structure of 24 F1 baby corn hybrids derived from six S3 lines of KH101 and four testers (S3 lines of Victory Super viz. VS). The parental lines and F1s were evaluated by estimating general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA). There were significant differences among the lines for plant height, number of cob per plant and cob yield per plant. The four testers were significantly different for days to 50 per cent silking, plant height, upper cob height, weight per cob with husk, weight per cob without husk, cob length, number of cob per plant and cob yield per plant. No significant difference was observed for line × tester interaction except fodder weight and days to first cob harvest. Estimates of variance due to GCA, SCA, and their ratio revealed predominantly non-additive gene effects for all the traits except weight per cob without husk. Line KH101/S3-42 and tester VS/S3-43 showed significant negative GCA effect for plant height and upper cob height. Line KH101/S3-3 showed significant positive GCA effect for number of cob per plant. Therefore, line KH101/S3-42 and tester VS/S3-43 could be used to develop dwarf variety and line KH101/S3-3 for increasing cob yield. The hybrid KH101/S3-13 × VS/S3-7 showed significant positive SCA effects for fodder yield per plant, hence, being suitable for fodder crop, KH101/S3-40 × VS/S3-5 and KH101/S3-42 × VS/S3-10 showed significant negative SCA effect for days to first cob harvest, indicating early genotypes.